links for 2010-07-12

One of the strengths of the vision put forward by the Big Society Network is mutualism. It's what created the Co-op and building societies – the idea of people investing in and supporting themselves and their communities. The first co-ops were founded by poor people with far fewer resources than we have now. Their strength was that they were owned by their members, and so independent of government and able to compete commercially.

I think one of the most useful things we can do in the north of England is to find ways to rediscover that ethos and recreate it for different times – to create entities that can be accountable to the people, not to government directives or the vagaries of funding decisions.